1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for supporting keyword input when information retrieval and the like are performed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various methods have been proposed as techniques to retrieve information related to a document that is being viewed. For example, JP-A 2006-65754 (KOKAI) discloses a method in which when a user selects a keyword from a document displayed in a Web browser by using a pointing device, retrieval method candidates related to the keyword are displayed in a menu based on the semantic attribute of the selected keyword, and information is retrieved based on the selected retrieval method. This method enables information related to a document being viewed to be retrieved only by selecting a desired keyword on a screen with a pointing device, such as a mouse.
However, the above method requires that a user select a keyword from a document being viewed with a pointing device upon retrieval. This causes one defect that the method cannot be applied to devices that generally do not have pointing devices, such as cellular phones and television sets. Another defect with the method is that only the information related to a document being viewed can be retrieved, and retrieval using, as keywords, information related to documents viewed in the past cannot be performed.
As described above, since, with the above method, a user needs to select a keyword from a document being viewed with a pointing device upon retrieval, the method has a defect that it cannot be applied to devices that do not have pointing devices, such as cellular phones and television sets.